Twice Pep Guardiola was offered the chance to sing the praises of Raheem Sterling ’s goalscoring achievements.
And twice he swiftly turned it into a round condemnation of his team’s frustrating inconsistency this season.
Sterling took his season’s tally in all competitions to 29, easily the best of his career, and going into the final Premier League game against Norwich, he has his sights on catching Jamie Vardy for the Golden Boot trophy – the Leicester striker is currently two ahead of him on 23.
Sterling bagged two more at Watford, but when Guardiola was invited at the post-match press conference to celebrate the feat, he shied away.
Asked about the fact that Sterling is now a goalscorer of merit, Guardiola replied: “It's important to score a goal for Raheem - but we cannot forget we finished far away from the champions.
“So this season was not good for us in the Premier League. It was much better than the other 18 teams, but it is not enough.
“So the personal achievements always must be related to the performance of the team. And it was not perfect.”
Another questioner tried to get Guardiola back on topic by pointing out that he has scored more this season than in any other campaign.
Guardiola was having none of it, saying “I love … we were far away from Liverpool.
“I think it is the first time we are able to win four games (in a row) in the Premier League. Two seasons ago we made 18, last season 14, and this is the first time we got four in a row.
“That is how poor our consistency was this season because we are the same people and it happens because something was wrong.”
